Applicants must meet requirements for admission to the Graduate School. Applicants must also have at least a 3.0 cumulative G.P.A. in their J.D. courses at the time of application to the joint degree program, as well as a B or better in any J.D. courses to be credited towards the LL.M. degree. Students will be formally admitted to the LL.M. program upon completion of the J.D. degree requirements, assuming that they continue to satisfy the requirements for admission.

Students interested in the J.D. degree program should apply to the joint degree program after completing their 1L year but before entering their 3L year (or upon completion of equivalent credits, if part-time students). Students would work with Wayne Law’s Assistant Dean of Non-J.D. Programs to plan their courses for the 2L and 3L years, as applicable, to include appropriate courses that are creditable towards the LL.M. major they elect to pursue. 

The J.D. degree requires a 1L curriculum consisting of Civil Procedure A and B, Constitutional Law I, Contracts A and B, Criminal Law, Legal Research and Writing, Property, and Torts. J.D. students must also take the upper-level course Professional Responsibility and the Legal Profession and satisfy an experiential learning requirement through clinic, externship or professional skills/simulation courses as well as an upper-level writing requirement. J.D. students must complete a total of 86 credit hours at a 2.00 G.P.A. or higher to receive the degree.

The LL.M. majors each have certain required courses and a list of approved courses, as set out in the Master of Laws Academic Regulations. LL.M. majors also have a small number of elective credits that may be taken outside the list of approved and required courses. A maximum of 12 credits may be double-counted towards both degrees. The credits that will count towards the LL.M. degree from the J.D. courses include the LL.M. required courses and additional specified courses from the list of approved courses for that major. Courses taken in the J.D. program that are neither required for the LL.M. major nor on the approved list for that major cannot be credited to both the J.D. and LL.M. degrees.